Legendary Pitt-Johnstown men’s basketball coach Bob Rukavina, who had ties to the Alle-Kiski Valley, has retired after 37 seasons, 47 overall in coaching.
“Coach Ruk,” a longtime Lower Burrell resident, registered 577 wins and a .580 winning percentage while guiding the Mountain Cats to five NCAA Division II Tournament appearances and 10 seasons of 20 or more wins.
This season, the Mountain Cats finished 20-11 after a 112-88 loss to West Liberty in the NCAA Division II Atlantic Region Tournament.
On Rukavina’s watch, UPJ went 24-5 in 1997-98 with back-to-back NCAA Tournament bids. The next year, the team was ranked No. 5 in the nation.
UPJ won 87 games between 1987 and 2000.
Rukavina was the 2006 National Independent Coach of the Year and was named the WVIAC Coach of the Year in 2007-08 after leading UPJ the regular-season conference title. He was the PSAC West Division Coach of the Year in 2015-16 and 2018-19.
He led UPJ in 1992 to its first winning season since 1979, including a head-turning upset of Division I Youngstown State.
Rukavina began coaching when he was 22, at Riverview, his high school alma mater.
Later, he became an assistant to Bill Shay at CCAC-North before coaching at CCAC-South.
He took over UPJ in 1989 and inherited a program that had only four winning seasons in 20 years.
Forming a bond with another UPJ coaching luminary, late wrestling coach Pat Pecora, Rukavina helped the Mountain Cats reach national prominence like his friend.
UPJ led the nation in field-goal percentage in 2008 and ‘10, and had the best 3-point shooting team in 2012-13, 2013-14, and 2022-23.
The popular “player’s coach” was inducted into the Pitt-Johnstown Athletics Hall of Fame in 2023.